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Sunday, 20 May 2012

Digital Spy Interview: Steven Moffat

Digital Spy has a nice interview with Steven Moffat that touches on all the projects past and present that he has going including Doctor Who Series 7. Here's an excerpt pertaining to Series 7:

Moving on to Doctor Who - how was it bidding farewell to Karen Gillan (Amy) and Arthur Darvill (Rory)?

"Oh, it's incredibly sad. The thing you can forget about this is, while the audience are losing people that they see for a few months per year, Karen and Arthur are walking out of something that they've been involved with every day for years. It's not just a professional change, it is a personal upheaval.

"I'm trying not to say it's like being dumped, but a huge part of your life changes. I think of Karen and Arthur, and from Matt [Smith]'s point of view - people that you saw every single day and have become absolutely part of your de facto family are now gone, never ever to be in that place in your life again.

photo by Annie Stoll

"So it's a huge upheaval - it's personal and it's human. People should not underestimate how upsetting it is for everybody involved in it. I don't mean 'upsetting' in the sense that it's a tragedy - it's not a tragedy! But it's a huge bloody change - it's someone moving out of your house, that's how big it is."

There are going to be five Doctor Who episodes in the autumn, then a Christmas special, then eight more in 2013 - what was the thinking behind that structure?
"I don't know, on this occasion, that the thinking particularly came from me, actually. I've always been open to anything that shakes [the series] up. I think that decision actually came from the BBC.

"But I've been well up for anything that we can do to shake up the transmission pattern, the way we deliver it to the audience and how long we make the audience wait, simply because that makes Doctor Who an event piece.

"The more Doctor Who becomes a perennial, the faster it starts to die. You've got to shake it up, you've got to keep people on edge and wondering when it will come back.

"Sherlock is the prime example, as far as that goes. Sherlock almost exists on starving its audience. By the time it came back this year, Sherlock was like a rock star re-entering the building!

"So keeping Doctor Who as an event, and never making people feel, 'Oh, it's lovely, reliable old Doctor Who - it'll be on about this time, at that time of year'. Once you start to do that, just slowly, it becomes like any much-loved ornament in your house - ultimately invisible. And I don't want that to ever be the case."

There's been a lot of secrecy surrounding the new companion - when can we expect to learn who Jenna-Louise Coleman is playing?
"Christmas! But don't expect to learn everything! We've got a good story and there are some proper legitimate surprises in it. I'm excited by it. I think we're going to do some fun stuff."

Are you hoping to conceal the companion's identity until the Christmas special actually airs?
"We can't really contain everything, because people will crawl all over us with cameras and sneak views of scripts and call-sheets. Something will get out. But we've been fairly sly, so let's wait and see.

"Again, a lot of the audience that I talk to specifically avoid any spoilers and I'm absolutely certain they have a better experience of the show. As I've always said, if I could make it on the dark side of the moon, I would, but you can't do these things.

"i got pilloried by somebody at some deep level of naivety about the industry - they were angry that I'd revealed the fact that Amy and Rory were even going to leave! But y'know, actor's agents really do have to advertise their client's availability - I had no choice but to announce they were going to leave. But in an ideal world, you wouldn't even do that."

And are plans for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who under way too?
"Yes, they are. I had a meeting about that earlier in the week!"

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